Apple’s Corporate Definition Part Deux

[Rick Lang]

[Franz Bieberkopf] “The more difficult question arises when professional needs differ from consumer needs.
“

Franz, absolutely correct. Lots of evidence in the past couple of years that Apple had lost sight of the professional needs, particularly in terms of workstations and collaborative networking and abandoning their server and shared storage. I think I heard that Steve Jobs had wanted to stop all hardware development in those areas and discontinue product or let it whither on the vine. That old operations guy (what’s his name? Tim Cook?), not the visionary, built the new Mac Pro which is the first sign of new life in terms of hardware but there’s more to be done, particularly in software, to keep competitive in the space. The new Mac Pro obviously had tons of precedence but the Apple Watch had zero to do with that visionary and begins a new era of product development under Tim’s watch (oops, pardon the pun).

Hopefully Tim will keep the momentum going for the tools you need to do your work. He may need some reminders of course. Aperture is a case in point. From what I’ve seen of Photos, it will disappoint pros and prosumers and enthusiasts so the immediate future isn’t looking too rosy. Of course in a couple of years, Photos may have trumped Aperture with capabilities that are hidden from consumers but open to those demanding more. I hope so as I’m not really eager to go to Lightroom and another ecosystem. That discussion is in another thread.

I just mention it to agree with you that there are bumps in the road but it is inconceivable to me that a company with enough cash to do whatever it wishes would abandon the arts. Sorry I’m not a U2 fan and paying them $100M to give me a free album is not my idea of how Apple should support the arts!

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Brett Sherman]

[Franz Bieberkopf] “The more difficult question arises when professional needs differ from consumer needs.”

Professional needs always differ from consumer needs. I don’t think that’s the point that was being made. I think you’d be hard pressed to call FCP X a “consumer” application. But there are definite advances in interface that came from iMovie that have been incorporated into FCP X to the professionals benefit. Skimming, keywording, filmstrip browsing, etc. Financial stability is also a benefit. I think Avid is an obvious comparison here.

Professional needs are also not monolithic. Your needs are different from mine. So if a product does not meet your specific needs it doesn’t mean they are prioritizing consumers over professionals. It just means they are targeting a different group of professionals.

Perhaps you’re getting at the issue of whether Apple sacrifices work on the ProApps to focus more on the consumer side. I think there is potentially an issue there, but it’s difficult to quantify that sentiment with anything other than pure speculation.

I will also say that I wish Apple was more aggressive in pursuing all video professionals. I think that market share in different professional camps helps the product develop. But at the moment, with some gripes, I’m quite happy with FCP X for my professional needs.

[Franz Bieberkopf]

[Brett Sherman] “Professional needs are also not monolithic.”

Brett,

This might be the key difference between professional and consumer needs, and it bears repeating.

Franz.

[Aindreas Gallagher]

I’ll tell you what’s weird jeremy – have you read gruber’s thinking on the price tiers? the mid range watch with sapphire glass and stainless steel isn’t going to be a hundred bucks more – he thinks it will come in around two to three times the price of the sport edition?

so that’s 350 – 1000 – 5000 dollar watches in the applestore –

what’s even crazier is the likely price of some of the straps – listen to this stuff off the site:

Crafted from the same 316L stainless steel alloy as the case, the Link Bracelet has more than 100 components. The machining process is so precise, it takes nearly nine hours to cut the links for a single band. In part that’s because they aren’t simply a uniform size, but subtly increase in width as they approach the case. Once assembled, the links are brushed by hand to ensure that the texture follows the contours of the design. The custom butterfly closure folds neatly within the bracelet. And several links feature a simple release button, so you can add and remove links without any special tools. Available in stainless steel and space black stainless steel.

someone from the guardian said they’ve never seen this much verbiage on the apple site – they have a point. there’s half a novella in the apple watch section.

but more crazy is what that strap is likely to cost – gruber reckons it’ll be more than the sport watch itself. you don’t tell someone you spent nine hours rubbing something unless you’re going to charge them a ton for it.

Which gets to the basic problem here – apple stores are essentially egalitarian – the products aren’t cheap, but they are broadly affordable – the macbook air is kind of an amazing computer for the price right?

But now when you walk in its going to be getting increasingly weird – there will be stands and presentation areas, in apple stores, specifically designed for and catering solely to very wealthy people who wish to flaunt that wealth. that just feels an incredibly odd thing for apple to be doing.

I don’t like, at all, the feel of where this is going – I said before that its starting to feel like apple has decided to self-recognise its brand as an overtly luxury offering. Hence them hiring from luxury fashion, luxury marc newsom objects, luxury everything – I’m not even thinking about their position on pro apps anymore, the entire show is starting to feel off key at a basic level – to me at any rate. Five thousand dollar gold watches in an apple store is just wrong. there’s no way around it.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “I’ll tell you what’s weird jeremy – have you read gruber’s thinking on the price tiers? the mid range watch with sapphire glass and stainless steel isn’t going to be a hundred bucks more – he thinks it will come in around two to three times the price of the sport edition?”

Yes! I enjoy the daring fireball.

[Aindreas Gallagher] “But now when you walk in now its going to be getting increasingly weird – there will be stands and presentation areas, in apple stores, specifically designed for and catering solely to very wealthy people who wish to flaunt that wealth. that just feels an incredibly odd thing for apple to be doing.

I don’t like, at all, the feel of where this is going – I said before that its starting to feel like apple has decided to self-recognise its brand as an overtly luxury offering. Hence them hiring from luxury fashion, luxury marc newsom objects, luxury everything – I’m not even thinking about their position on pro apps anymore, the entire show is starting to feel off key at a basic level – to me at any rate. Five thousand dollar gold watches in an apple store is just wrong. there’s no way around it.”

You know, I agree with you. I do think, if this is true, this is an extremely weird move.

I know an avid watch collector. The amount of money, time, and effort that is spent on watch-ing, as well as the observation and curation of the history and craftsmanship that is put in to the time pieces, is a job unto itself.

I do think that Apple is, at some level, honoring these traditions. When you step outside of the practicality, watches can be a very big personality statement.

The Jobsian led G3 blueberry era was fun, but not overt. As you say, gold is overt. It does signify wealth, and it does have “f*ck-you-money” written all over it.

So, on the one wrist, I have to say that Apple is doing right by the extremely weird and specific watch crowd, on the other wrist, I am not sure where this is going either, and it does feel creepy. I’ll be honest, and you call me any name you want, fanboy/whatever/etc, I do have a lot of respect for Apple products, and I do believe that the Apple leadership truly wants to create a better user experience. For the first time in a really long time, this product is nothing that interests me, and I am unsure what this experience will do for anyone. And then you add the “gold that is harder than gold” that you mentioned, it does feel off. It’s not really about the price, a top spec MacPro is not cheap, it’s more about what a $10,000 watch represents.

I hear you.

[Aindreas Gallagher]

Love the daring fireball. top of my feedly rss list it is. he writes good stuff.

[Jeremy Garchow] “I know an avid watch collector. The amount of money, time, and effort that is spent on watch-ing, as well as the observation and curation of the history and craftsmanship that is put in to the time pieces, is a job unto itself.”

small confession – I went through a period of watch madness last year – ebay, seventies indian watches, eighties russian watches – there is some great stuff out there. I bought this eco drive – with a custom black leather white stitch strap (because the one it comes with is disgusting):

https://www.shadestation.co.uk/media/thumbs/800×800/media/product_images/BM6400-00Efw800fh800.jpg

also if you go here (you may have already been) : https://forums.watchuseek.com/f71/

you can find some ahhhhmazing stuff for not too much cash.

your mate will know the acronym: WIS. watch idiot savant. I’m not one by any stretch of the imagination, but I did have a few months of madness getting odd watches in the post. Its mad to read those guys on the forum. Watches can be deeply satisfying in a nerd design blokey way.

gruber linked as well to a brilliant article where a guy who runs a blog on watches was basically blown away by the quality of apple’s work – big surprise right?
basically they’ve made some of the best engineered straps he’s ever seen in his life, link straps better than stuff on watches that cost stratospheric amounts of money.

So I buy all that as far as it goes – apple have decided to get into watches in a big way. but still but still but still. Five thousand dollar solid gold watches in an apple store. For what it will be seen to say about them – is it worth it? They’ll end up making more on iphone cables annually you’d suspect. there are only so many gold watch buyers out there. why do it? why make that statement about themselves?

[Jeremy Garchow] “I’ll be honest, and you call me any name you want, fanboy/whatever/etc, I do have a lot of respect for Apple products, and I do believe that the Apple leadership truly wants to create a better user experience.”

I believe that in spades too. Sure I’m apple up to my neck. the chances of me buying an android phone or a windows laptop are nil at the point. I have a basic belief in what apple stands for – because they execute it – and its that that is making a lot of this stick in my craw. I just can’t square what they’re doing here.

Also – I don’t get it either. Same as you I can’t find any enthusiasm for this thing – i keep trying to picture it – I think about the phone in my pocket and this thing on my wrist and it feels like overkill – at least the way they’ve constructed it. The one thing I thought was fascinating is that gruber was convinced they weren’t going to do a watch – that they would really just do a bracelet sensor with some visual display, a ring even, which I found kind of fascinating. A ring could say presumably do all the health skin contact reading and maybe the haptic, some interesting visual colour notification. Gruber was convinced they weren’t just going to do a big LCD with faux timepiece and tons of notifications and well… look what they did.

And they made a five thousand dollar one in gold.

misgivings, super unavoidable misgivings.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Charlie Austin]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “And they made a five thousand dollar one in gold.

misgivings, super unavoidable misgivings.”

Well, there’s always this take:

You’ll be able to buy one at the Apple Store but I’ll tell you right now it will never be in stock and will have to be a special order. Gold Apple Watches will instead be sold in the same stores as those other fine watches. That’s why Apple hired Monsieur Pruniaux.

Apple gets a new, small (but highly lucrative) sales channel that is perfectly happy holding inventory. And if they sell Apple Watches the watch retailers will probably sell iPhones to go with them.

————————————————————-

~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Tim Wilson]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “Five thousand dollar gold watches in an apple store is just wrong. there’s no way around it.”

I disagree completely. Does this Apple store look a place to buy a $5000 watch? In fact, it looks like the best place to buy a $5000 watch in the history of the world. It’s insanity NOT to sell $5000 watches there.

I don’t live in Manhattan. I live in a small mountain community with maybe 200 hundred houses. Not luxurious. Mine’s around 1500 square feet. Killer view looking into the valley mind you, but this is by no means a wealthy enclave. It’s not even an actual town.

My nearest Apple store is 25 minutes or so downhil, in Palm Desert. Got this picture from the Apple site. I think a gold watch would look just fine in here, don’t you?

What’s next to it?

Yeah, Gucci and some Bentleys. And just outside the frame: Tiffany.

Hardly a representative sample, so just at random, I decided to look at the very next Apple store to be opening: inside the Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach, VA. Opening next week in fact.

Completely mainstream. The anchor stores are JC Penney, Dillard’s, Macy’s, and then an anchor cluster of Dave & Buster’s, Barnes & Noble, and Dick’s Sporting Goods. Absolutely classic American mall.

Inside, you’ll find even more classic American shopping: The Gap, Footlocker, an ear-piercing kiosk, GNC, Sunglass Hut, Cracker Barrel, Lens Crafters, Spencer Gifts (the 70s! Represent!), Limited, McDonalds in the food court, an AMC theater, etc. This is AMERICA.

And it includes FIVE stores that sell watches that cost more than $5000: again, absolutely mainstream companies like Zales and Kay Jeweler. MOST of what those stores sells costs less, but they carry plenty that costs a lot more, even if they might sell only a few a week.

And when I said 5 stores, I wasn’t even counting Macy’s, which DEFINITELY sells watches that go higher than $5000.

There are malls like this in every major city in America. Every one of them has stores that includes a few premium products among a mix that’s otherwise geared much below that.

Here’s my bottom line: It’s insane for Apple NOT to sell lifestyle products that cost a f-load more than an iPad. And it’s insane for Apple not sell them EXACTLY where most people are buying those products from other vendors: in malls, and in standalone stores areas that skew affluent.

Exactly the strategy that Apple has been pursuing from the beginning.

Apple knows that their audience skews affluent. Anybody remember the first carmaker that Apple worked with on direct support of iPods? Bueller? Bueller? Thaaat’s right, BMW.

Having said this, it’s conceivable that Apple won’t be heavily stocked with every model at every store. Among the coupla hundred to maybe $1000 models, maybe a display model of the top of the line. Maybe not even that. You can’t buy every Mac Pro at every mall, either. Those stores will happily take your order, though.

But a $5000 watch will look MUCH less out of place than a $2500 computer. People might go years without seeing a $2500 computer anywhere else, but they’ll pass 30 $5000 watches between the Pretzel Factory and the Flip Flop Shop, both of which you’ll find at the Lynnhaven Mall.

re: who this is for, what it’s doing, etc. Well, how big a need did you feel for an iPad before they existed? I’ll wager, none whatsoever.

The fact is that wearables have been around for years, and Android users have been merrily using them for a while now. Reviews are pretty typical for early generation products, running in the 4.4 star range at Best Buy, for example. If Android morons can figure it out, I’m sure that you smart, handsome Apple guys will figure it out, maybe just starting with a $300 model to take it for a spin or for a gift for a teenager or some such. And it’ll work its way into your life by 2016.

Or it won’t. Lifestyle wearables have little to do with the people who post here. They have a LOT to do with people who post in other forums in the COW, though, and elsewhere of course. Not just tech hoarders and early adopters, but also college kids and the subset of post-grad millenials with money to spend who are already plotting on pairing an iWatch with their iPhone 6.

The same people who spent MORE than the cost of an entry-model iWatch on their Beats headphones, even without an Apple logo on them. Abbbbbbsolutely mainstream.

This is going to be huge. You watch.

SEE WHAT I DID THERE

[Aindreas Gallagher]

tell me some part of you doesn’t think this is weird – never mind his central speculation that the decision to make a solid gold apple wrist accesory comes from the newly installed “insanely pricey luxury object” part of the leadership team. that’s a pretty weird new wing of apple. that cook installed.

and surely the weirdest thing is that, inside that solid gold ingot is commodity electronics that will be unusable inside 48 months.

Ok they’ll have some insane trade in system for the sheiks who bought one, (and as the verge pointed out in hysterics on the podcast, apple will need a smelting operation to recover the gold in the old iwatch) so they can run apple watch OS4 without the screen in the middle of the gold stuttering – but how mad is all that?

the point cringely makes on rolex is flat out wrong too, as has been pointed out: there is a central fallacy in the apple watch edition object. A rolex actually bloody is timeless – its hand machined innards are built to last a century – complications at the top end are fabergé like.

would you take an apple watch to the moon?

that thing has an lcd, a questionable battery life, and a soon to be commodity chinese circuit board that can just about stand a shower. It’s not a timepiece, there is no surreal internal craftsmanship – there’s just an lcd screen and that dodgy screen of overcrowded apps.

Apple are, in a sense, pandering to horology – edit – no point hammering them like mad. haven’t actually even seen the thing.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “but still but still but still. Five thousand dollar solid gold watches in an apple store. For what it will be seen to say about them – is it worth it? They’ll end up making more on iphone cables annually you’d suspect. there are only so many gold watch buyers out there. why do it? why make that statement about themselves?”

I do think it has to do with the fanaticism of watches in general.

I still believe that the impetus for this is an Ive pet project. Cook believes in Ive’s design (he gushes, really), ergo, make it so, Sir Ive. Gold. Gold everywhere. Then they hired the Burberry folks to make sure it wasn’t going to completely fall apart from a marketing standpoint, and to give it a luxurious legitimacy. It’s what huge companies do, hire more “experts”.

I also think that despite the bling, the Watch is the test ground for a whole bunch of things new for Apple technology. And then there’s the WISses (thanks for that) that Apple has to appease. Perhaps they chose a really expensive watch to test because, it’s all consumers can handle at the moment in a familiar form factor, and it is what current technology can support. It’s a first step.

I am conflicted. I get it, and then I really don’t get it.